MotoGP moves to Spain’s MotorLand Aragon circuit this weekend for the 12th round of the championship. With nine rounds to go it’s perhaps too early to start talking about a two-horse race between reigning double world champion Francesco Bagnaia on the works Ducati, and Pramac Ducati’s Jorge Martin, but the duo are the most consistent front runners and have pulled well clear of the field.
Following his win in Austria a fortnight ago, his seventh of the season, Bagnaia leads the standings on 275 points from Martin’s 270. Their nearest challenger is Bagnaia’s team-mate Enea Bastianini on 214.
Six-times world champion Marc Marquez is in fourth on 192 points and the anti-clockwise Aragon circuit has been a happy hunting ground for the Spaniard, who has a record five wins there in the MotoGP class. Marquez has yet to take a win this season but lines up as one of the victory favourites this weekend if he can keep his Gresini Ducati rubber side down, and the Ducati rider’s 2024 campaign has been marred by several crashes.
Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales is the highest-placed non-Ducati rider, on 139 points, with SA’s Brad Binder flying the KTM flag in sixth place on 128. Binder has re-established himself as the Austrian brand’s top performer after taking fifth at their home circuit last time out, bumping Pedro Acosta into 7th in the championship on 125 points.
Following a sensational start to his rookie MotoGP season with podium finishes in the second and third rounds, Acosta has gone off the boil on his GasGas Tech 3 machine in recent months, with the more experienced Binder the rider who is getting the best out of a KTM bike that has fallen significantly behind the dominant Ducatis. His Australian team-mate Jack Miller lies 15th in the standings on 47 points, underlining KTM’s struggles.
Austria will have given the South African some hope as it was his best finish since fourth place at the second round in Portugal, although he finished over 18 seconds behind the winner two weeks ago.
“I wanted a bit more for the home Grand Prix but we figured some good things out so let’s keep building from here. I think we’ll be OK in Aragon and I’m hoping for a good result,” said Binder, whose only podium finish this year was second at the Qatar season opener.
Ahead of this weekend’s race, Honda LCR rider Takaaki Nakagami announced his MotoGP career is coming to an end after seven years. The 2024 season will be the Japanese rider’s last before he transitions to a development rider role with Honda, and his MotoGP seat next year will be taken by Thai rider Somkiat Chantra who steps up from the Moto2 class.
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